Blog 6

Students in OU’s Printmaking classes in the School of Art and Art History are adding final touches to their latest projects in preparation for the upcoming “print swap.”
 All intermediate level lithography classes are required to take part in the now annual print swap. Students are instructed to create an original print project based on a pre-determined theme and make multiple replicas of their work. Once the work period of the project is over, the prints are submitted to the professors, who then assign each print a number. Then, each student comes and draws a series of numbers and keeps the prints that correspond to their number.
 According to OU’s School of Art website, students are allowed access 24 hours a day, every day, to work on their print swap pieces, among many others,
 “I’m up here all the time honestly,” junior Courtney Creedon said.
“This is one of our most enjoyable projects so far though so I don’t mind that I practically live at the studio.”
The theme to this year’s print swap is “Fables and Fairytales,” so creativity was abound as students produced prints with detailed fire-breathing dragons, prehistoric fish, and many other imagined images.
 “This is a really cool theme that we were given this year to work with,” senior Alex Fuller said.
 “It’s not incredibly difficult, but at the same time it forces you to think a little further to create something that wouldn’t be expected from your basic childhood fables.”
 Creedon’s creation, which is a simple print of three fish with a thick, dark edging, is part of the greater portion of student prints that do not have the look of a typical fairytale or fable.
 “I wanted to go with something different than what was expected. I think it’ll be a unique piece to add to someone’s print collections,” Creedon said.
 The print swap will be held before the end of April in the third floor of the Charles M. Russell Center in the Lithography classroom.